I had to cut my vacation super short during a three week business trip in France and threw away two months of research and diverted the dumped the multi-city holiday to visit Strasbourg, which I knew nearly nothing about. Of course I looked up reviews on Tripadvisor and Maison Rouge looked like a good place for base camp and was very reasonably priced.

Upon arrival the outside of the building is beautiful and the entry is also very nice. The front desk people were very pleasant and every clerk we met there spoke excellent English. There are unique couch/lounge type areas on each floor near the elevators that create a space perfect for relaxing to read a book or drink coffee. All of this combined with nice hallways to the rooms all left a good first impression on us as we made our way back. It was a surprise when we got into our room and saw how small the rooms actually are. They aren't overly tiny (i've been to Japan and seen tiny rooms, lol) but compared with the nice entry, hallways, and lounge areas I guess it just seemed a little unexpected. I'm not condemning the room size or anything, just was a surprise when the door opened. Then you open the door to the bathroom and it gets big again. The bathroom in our room was huge with a double sink and lots of counter space and extra wide floor area and deep tub.

The location for this hotel couldn't be better. The tram is directly in front of the hotel, shopping is on all sides, the giant square is one block away and Notre Dame Cathedral is maybe a 10 minute walk. The area wasn't loud with drunkards at night or anything and we slept like babies all three nights. You are pretty much in the center of everything. Petite France is less than 10 minute walk too. We never even grabbed a map because the hotel was so centrally located that it was easy to find. There are tons of places to eat within a five minute walk.

My only real complaint was the breakfast situation. We tried to eat breakfast there on the first morning and took the elevator down to the first floor and found the entrance and there was no one to be found. We talked for a bit waiting for someone to show up but nobody was arriving. We finally started saying hello loudly because we could hear some staff behind a closed door laughing and talking but they couldn't hear us. We were standing out there for quite a long time and I'm a pretty patient person. Finally we got loud enough that someone came out and they took our room number and pointed into the room and left never to be seen again. We sat ourselves and browsed the breakfast bar. It is yogurt, canned fruit cocktail, bad scrambled eggs and soggy bacon. The instant coffee machine was not up par with the coffee I had been having in France. We took our sweet time eating and drinking the mediocre coffee and nobody ever came out to check on the buffet, ask how we were, or see if other guests arrived. It was rather strange. We didn't have breakfast there again.

If I go back to Strasbourg I would stay at this hotel again. The location, front desk staff, and value of this hotel are great!

PS: There appears to be a very nice espresso/coffee machine booth next to the reception desk that I wish we would have tried instead of venturing out each morning. I genuinely was having a lot of hit and miss experiences with the coffee in Strasbourg.